Bonfire of the quangos is burning bright
The UK government has today announced the abolition of a whole host of quangos which are effectively unelected bodies which depend upon taxpayer funding to carry out their activities. They range from everything from the Competition Commission to a quango in charge of farm labourer rates of pay. The government has confirmed the largest restructuring of these particular unelected bodies for decades at a time when they were beginning to cost UK taxpayers a significant amount of money.
One of the major changes announced today was the merger of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission into a new body which will look into various aspects of the business arena. There is some concern for the Competition Commission in particular which has been a vital plank for the UK stock market and corporate activity sector and indeed has been very prevalent in the wider business arena. Will the Competition Commission lose the vast majority of its power under a merger with the Office of Fair Trading? Will the UK business arena still be safeguarded against monopolies that have been investigated time and time again over the years?
Only time will tell whether the abolition/merger of many of these quangos will prove to be the right move but in the meantime the UK government is attracting significant criticism.
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